Silver preps for super finalist interviews

The Silver Consolidated Schools Board of Education held a special meeting Monday evening to prepare for the upcoming superintendent interviews and to formulate a series of 20 questions to ask the finalists.

The board met at 5:30 p.m. following two similar trainings and closed sessions for two committees, one made up of staff and the other of community members, which began at 3 p.m. at the Silver Schools administration building.

The board met with Dr. Dan Patterson from the New Mexico School Board Association, who they hired to conduct the search, and he explained how the interviews should be conducted.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” he said. “People are going to walk in here and you may not like the way they walk, the way they look, or their hairdo or shirt or tie. Let the person sell themselves to you or not sell themselves to you.”

Patterson suggested the board start off with a question like “Tell us something about yourself and your educational background that puts you here.”

“That one tends to run on, but puts them in a comfortable position,” he said.

Each candidate will be asked 20 questions and have two and half minutes to answer each question during the 50-minute interview. Patterson said the questions should be clear and concise.

“Don’t spread it out over three paragraphs,” he said. “We want to maximize the opportunity for them to speak.”

He said board members should ask probing, open-ended questions, not yes-and-no questions.

“One like ‘Describe your most difficult experience with an irate parent and tell us how you handled it,’” Patterson said.

Patterson cautioned the board to not let personal friendships or animosities get in the way.

“You may know someone. You may not like them, but you can’t show that in your interview,” he said. “You may be interviewing someone where your sister also worked for the district. You have to avoid that kind of chitchat. Focus on what he or she does, don’t be distracted, be interested,” Patterson advised the board.

“A personality doesn’t always make a good leader,” he said. “It’s part of it, but not all of it. So, even though you may just like someone and not know why, put that aside.”

He also cautioned the board against asking anything illegal or not job-related.

“All questions must be job-related,” he said. “Nothing regarding mental or medical health, age, religion, or sexual orientation. The candidate sometimes will give you that information without you asking it and that’s fine.”

He also told the board that they need to be aware of their body language when conducting interviews. The way a board member or committee member acts could make an interviewee uncomfortable. Patterson said that in one interview he was a part of, one of the interviewers heard a response they did not like while taking notes. He said that person slammed their pen down on the table, leaned back very suddenly and then sighed. These are things that the committees and board should avoid doing, Patterson said.

After the training, the board entered into an executive session to formulate the 20 questions they will ask the candidates when they conduct interviews on Saturday, Oct. 29. Those sessions between the committees and the board will be closed to the public but a public forum will be held with the candidates at 6:30 p.m. the day before, Friday, Oct. 28, at a location to be determined.

After the interviews, the board will evaluate each candidate on a scale of one to five. Patterson said he expects a decision to be made that day. If it is not, then, Patterson said, a special board meeting will have to be held.